


take a piece of my heart and make it all your own (never be alone)

by escapismandsharpobjects



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s03e16 The One That Got Away, Fluff and Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, only a lil angst, reuploaded due to stupid technical error on my part my bad folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23887933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects
Summary: Tag to s03e16. Maddie has a talk with Eddie, who has a talk with Buck.EDIT: reuploaded bc apparently in my 1am writing haze i didn't format this right and none of my italics showed up lol sorry
Relationships: Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Christopher Diaz & Evan “Buck” Buckley, Eddie Diaz & Maddie Buckley (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley, Evan “Buck” Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 143





	take a piece of my heart and make it all your own (never be alone)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! First off Yes My Title Is From An Old Shawn Mendes Song as I am apparently in tune with my middle school self tonight. Anyway this is what I would like to happen after the episode!! Hope this is ok, it’s almost 1 am lol  
> EDIT: it is now 4pm the following day and my dumb ass finally realized i fucked up my formatting so here this is again but like. with feeling.

She’s at the Diaz house before she can even stop and think the better of it. It’s not until after she knocks and hears a delighted shout of, “Daddy, someone’s here!” that she begins to wonder whether this is a good idea at all, but by then it’s too late, and the door opens and Eddie Diaz smiles at her, clearly a bit confused. 

“Maddie,” he says. “What’s going on?”

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” she says, half to herself. 

Eddie turns to his son. “Hey, buddy, how about you go play in your room for a bit while I talk to Maddie here, okay?”

Chris nods and gives Maddie a wide grin before heading off to his room. 

“Come in,” Eddie says, stepping aside and gesturing for Maddie to sit in the living room. She sinks into the couch, and her hands fidget nervously.  _ Was this even going to do anything? _

“What’s going on?” Eddie asks again, more nervous this time. “Is Buck okay?”

_ Of course he would ask after Buck.  _ That was why she was here anyway, wasn’t it?

“He’s fine. Physically, anyway. But I’m worried about him, Eddie. He just lost Red, and I know they didn’t know each other for very long, but he’s terrified that he’s going to end up like that. Alone, devoted only to the job, no family, nothing permanent. Evan’s just...he’s so  _ scared _ of being left behind, Eddie. He  _ gets _ left behind. By me, our parents, Abby...he told me that I wouldn’t understand, because I’m always the one leaving people, and he’s right. I don’t know what it feels like to always be left behind, to always be terrified of being left behind. He’s afraid he’s going to lose his  _ family,  _ Eddie, but I’ve  _ seen _ the way he looks at you, I  _ hear _ the way he talks about you, and you know as well as I do that you would  _ never _ leave him behind, that you can  _ be _ that stability, Eddie, you can be the one that  _ stays.” _

Eddie blinks, and looks up to meet Maddie’s eyes. There’s a kind of raw vulnerability behind them, the desperation of a sister who knows what her brother needs but does not know if she can provide it for him. She needs him. Buck needs him. And he...he needs Buck. He nods. “Of course I’d stay. I never planned on leaving.” 

As soon as he says it, he knows it’s true. Buck is his best friend, but he’s so much more than that. He makes Eddie feel safe. He loves Christopher as though he’s his own son. He’s saved the both of them, in more ways than Eddie can count. And Eddie is in love with him. It’s a comfortable sort of love, not burning and intense and brief, and it is made of movie nights and trips to the park and fitting together as a singular unit. And now Buck, possibly, feels the same way, if Maddie’s words mean what he thinks-what he hopes-they do. And yet Buck is afraid of losing him? Of losing  _ him?  _ “Is Buck home now?” Eddie asks, already knowing the answer. 

“He is,” Maddie says. “Go to him, Eddie, please.”

“I will.”

—-

Maddie, her work now done, leaves Eddie’s house feeling assured that her little brother is finally going to be shown the stability he deserves. 

Eddie, for his part, is putting on a jacket and waiting for Chris to tie his shoes. It doesn’t feel right to do this without him. They are, after all, a package deal. 

The Diaz’s arrive at Buck's apartment shortly after sunset. Eddie unlocks the door, and quietly directs Chris to the couch-there is a box of Legos under the coffee table, a relic of one of his ‘Buck days,’ and Chris quickly gets to work building...something. Eddie smiles at his son for a moment, then heads up to the loft to look for Buck. 

As he had expected, Buck is in the loft. What he had  _ not _ expected was to find him crouched up against the edge of the bed, scrolling through something on his phone without looking at it, with silent tears dripping down his face. 

“Buck?”

Buck looks up at him, and quickly scrubs a hand over his face. “Hey Eddie,” he says tiredly. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

Eddie looks right back at him, his heart breaking as he looks into Buck’s watery eyes. “You okay?” he asks, softly, like there is something present that he doesn’t want to break. 

Buck nods, but says nothing, and Eddie extends a hand. “Come on, get up,” he says gently, pulling Buck to his feet when the other man takes his hand. “There you go,” he says as he moves Buck to sit on the edge of the bed. He sits down next to Buck, and takes a deep breath. Once he does this, there is no going back. He doesn’t  _ want _ to go back. 

“Eddie?” Buck looks at him curiously. “You okay?”

Eddie reaches out a hand and gently turns Buck's face towards his own. “Evan Buckley,” he begins, “you are my best friend. You are like a second father to my son. You are one of the bravest, strongest, most loyal, most  _ stubborn _ people I know. You have  _ never _ given up-on me, on Chris, Maddie, the 118,  _ anyone. _ And I just want you to know-I want you to know the reverse is true, too.  _ I _ will never give up on you. And neither will Chris, and neither will Maddie, and neither will the 118. I  _ love you, _ Buck. I don’t want you to feel like you’re alone. Like you are  _ ever _ going to be alone. I’m here, and I always will be. I love you.”

They are both crying now, and Eddie knows that he is crying from sheer  _ release _ -it is out now, he loves Buck and he’s said it, out loud, and it feels  _ right _ in a way that few things ever have. Like moving to Los Angeles. Like holding his son in his arms for the first time. 

The same son who now stands below the railing of the loft and shouts, “I love you, too, Bucky!” 

Buck smiles, a genuine grin that makes Eddie’s heart swell, and he sniffs and turns that smile to Eddie, and says, “you brought Chris, too?”

“Of course I did. Didn’t you hear him? He loves you. And so do I.” Now that he’s said it, he never wants to stop. 

A slight flush creeps up Buck’s cheeks. “I love you too, Eddie. And you too, Chris,” he adds, saying that part louder so that the boy can hear him. 

It’s Eddie’s turn to smile now, and he places a soft hand on Buck's cheek. “Can I kiss you?” he asks, and he wonders if this is too much, too fast, but before he can think any more, Buck is leaning forward, pressing their lips together in a kiss which is soft and gentle, and which is another one of those things that just feels  _ right.  _

They pull away after a long moment, foreheads pressed together, breathing in the familiar scent of home, which is exactly the same as it always has been, though it now carries the promise of thousands of kisses that feel as  _ right _ as this one. 

Chris breaks their silence, calling up to the pair in the loft once again. “Can we watch a movie? Bucky has Toy Story!”

Buck and Eddie share a look, both of them with light tear tracks on their cheeks and soft smiles on their faces. Eddie tilts his head, a silent question. Buck answers it aloud. 

“Of course!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!! I hope this was ok, please feel free to let me know what you think!


End file.
